STARMON s.r.o., together with its subsidiary DSRailtech a.s., has begun testing the innovative DMP system for detecting defects on moving vehicles and on the infrastructure of Správa železnic s.o. (Czech Railway Administration). This technology includes many detection functionalities based on common hardware.
The equipment is capable of detecting not only defects on moving vehicles manifesting as incorrect movement, but also determining the presence of a train in the measured section, detecting objects being dragged behind the train, or derailment of cars. In addition to diagnosing moving vehicles, the same sensory equipment can also detect the condition of the infrastructure such as rail integrity (rail breaks), track buckling due to high temperatures and tension, unauthorized entry into the track area, obstacles on the track (fallen rocks, trees), cracks and complete separation in switch blades, proper operation of point machines, or track flooding.
The portable version of the device for detecting track buckling and is in its final stage of product approval by NetworkRail for use on transport routes in Great Britain. The technology is also being tested on railways, metro and tram infrastructures in the USA, Belgium, India and Slovakia. The companies are installing and verifying the DMP equipment in the Czech environment together with other technologies such as hot axle box detection on moving vehicles, pantograph fault detection, and equipment for identifying moving vehicles.
